


Fragile Things

by reylotea



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, First Time, Kylo Is Trying So Hard to Be a Gentleman, Loss of Virginity, Masturbation, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Sex Pollen, Sex Pollen With Too Many Feelings, These Two Are A Hot Mess, Thirsty Rey, Time-Skip, Virgin Kylo Ren, Virgin Rey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-05 04:59:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13380672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reylotea/pseuds/reylotea
Summary: For two long years, Kylo and Rey have been able to stifle the unwanted bond after the events of Crait. A chance meeting changes that in a heartbeat and what should have been a quiet mission turns into a life-or-death decision that falls into Rey's hands.There was nothing moral or satisfying about it. It was poison running through his system slowly and methodically, and if Rey didn’t act soon, Kylo Ren would be dead within a few short hours.With his life in her hands for the second time, they must both come to terms with the feelings that have gone unspoken and the consequences that follow.





	1. The Drowned Temple

**Author's Note:**

> I started this shortly after The Force Awakens was released and never managed to post it because the story didn't quite click for me. But now after The Last Jedi, the muses have returned and this story is still alive and beginning to take the direction I want for it! I'm taking the fanfic author advice and writing something I want to read. It has more than a handful of my favorite tropes, ideas and kinks, with more popping up along the way. Tags will be updated as they come along, but I will try to keep it minimal to not spoil the story so much. 
> 
> This was beta'd by me, myself and I - any mistakes are mine. Find me on Tumblr: @reylotea
> 
> Enjoy and thank you so much for reading!

 

***

_“Try not to touch the water and especially do NOT touch the flowers.”_

Rey didn’t remember Finn’s warning until she was watching Kylo lose his footing on the crumbling ledge they were fighting on. One second he was twirling towards her, his saber crackling menacingly. The next there was a small rumble and he was tossed into free fall as the stones beneath his feet gave way. She instinctively reached out, trying to grab hold of him with the Force, but he fell too fast. He plummeted straight down into the wide pool that had once been the temple floor, now sunken in and filled with murky water. Atop the water’s surface lay giant red blooms, resting on the water like lily pads.

They were blood-red, fragrant, and _dangerous._ And Kylo had just fully submerged in the very spot where the damned things had been _steeping_ for almost a century undisturbed.

She thumbed off her saber-staff, extinguishing the twin blades as she bent to pick up Kylo’s own discarded hilt that had flown from his grip. She barreled down the crumbling spiral steps, racing back towards the pond where the problems were only beginning.

 

***

_“What are they?” she asked, staring at the mesmerizing petals as they fanned across the water. Finn swiped across the data pad, scrolling through images of them from every angle._

_“They're called Maiden’s Blood, a primordial flora native only to Naboo. They are the predecessor to the millaflowers that are more renown of the planet. They grow mainly in the forests and shallow lakes. They thrive in still water. The roots that grow beneath the surface have medicinal properties, and the petals produce a rich dye; though the pollen is used for slightly more… sinister purposes.”_

  _“Such as?”  Rey paused as he came to the next group of images. Her cheeks flushed immediately as image after image flashed by of bodies crushed together intimately. Finn’s fingers swept rapidly across the screen as he rushed through them._

  _“In small quantities, the pollen is crushed into a powder and mixed with other plants to make a high-potency aphrodisiac. In larger doses, the pollen itself is left pure and acts as a slow burning poison that destroys the body from the inside out.”_

  _“Is there an antidote for the poison?”_

  _They were interrupted then by Poe, who came bearing food. He set the tray down onto Rey's small work table where Finn was perched._

  _“What are we talking about?” He plopped down heavily onto Rey's bed, hands thrown behind his head._

  _“Mission briefing, kind of.” Finn said, pulling a bowl of some sort of stew towards himself. He tossed the data pad over to Poe._

  _“Finn’s giving me more intel on where I'm going. Apparently there's some giant flowers that can either heal or kill me.”_ _Poe scrolled through the pad, tongue clicking loudly against his teeth._

  _“Well this sounds delightful. Make sure to send postcards, dear.”_

  _Rey laughed. “I should be fine, as long as I don't touch anything. Though, you haven't told me the antidote yet.” She nodded pointedly towards Finn._

  _“How do I fix myself if something happens?”_

  _Finn choked a little on his soup. His face flushed deep red as he swallowed the chunk of meat that had lodged itself in his throat. Rey didn’t fail to notice how he refused to look her in the eye._

_“Oh boy, this is unreal. I really hope you don't need to do this.” Poe chimed in, reading the screen._

_Rey crossed her arms. “You’re making it sound like I have to commit murder.”_  

_“Murder might be a better option, to be honest.”_

_Rey huffed, arms crossed and snatched the pad out of Poe’s hands, scanning the page quickly. “What-...”_

_There was a long silence as she continued reading, swiping the pages until she reached the end of the unit. The words were there before her. She had read them. They were still sinking into her brain like syrup._

_“How the hell is this even possible?!”_

 

_***_

 

He came up sputtering. Rey had just reached the top of the stone steps that led down into the pool as he was resurfacing, arms flailing wildly and coughing heavily. Her small hope that he had managed to fall without swallowing anything was dashed to pieces as he spat a mouthful of the red-tinged water. 

Without thinking she stepped into the water, up to her knees until his body was in reach. She grabbed him with more than a little help from the Force, her arms slipping beneath his to wrap around his chest and hauled him out of the pool and back onto the temple proper, dragging him as far from the water as she could. She passed the first set of pillars that ringed the sunken center of the temple and stopped, leaning him against one. Rey could feel the rapid pattern of his heartbeat against her palm before she let go.

Kylo promptly slid down until he was sitting; looking quite wretched in his waterlogged clothes, long hair matted to his face. He was breathing too hard, unable to catch his breath and hardly noticed her at all. His gloved hands went to his chest, fingers clutching at his heart which felt like it was going to burst.

As the poison slowly made itself apparent, Kylo knew something was horribly, inherently _wrong_.

It was a desperate itch beneath his skin, something volatile and acidic, like a million needles pricking and dragging against his flesh. His skin felt too tight, his blood much too hot. He became almost hyper aware of everything touching him; every fiber and hair, every small pressure made him flinch and groan as if someone were dragging sandpaper against him. It was past the point of oversensitive and onto a feeling of rawness that overwhelmed. He felt as if someone had dragged a razor to every possible nerve ending on his body, exposing them. Everything hurt. Even his eyes were too bright, pupils blown wide from the reaction. It was that small moment that allowed him to once again focus just a little.

His eyes snapped open to Rey who was standing far enough out of reach but still close enough for her to hear him clearly.

“What’s happening to me, scavenger? What did you _do_?” His already deep voice was a shade of itself, the poison making it a dusty rasp against his lips.

Rey stood there, and never had he felt her more panicked. While she maintained that outward coolness in her form, he could see it in her bright eyes and twisting hands, sense it in the bond that was beginning to strum with the force of both their rampant emotions.

The walls they had both created out of necessity were crumbling fast.

“It’s the flowers. The ones in the pond. The pollen is poisonous.” Her voice held quiet tremors.

Kylo looked over to the far side of the vast hall where he could see some of the red reflecting in the water against the light on the walls. Poison. A poison he had exposed himself to with the help of no one at all.

He couldn’t stop the bitter laugh that escaped him; a low warbled sound that echoed back to them eerily through the hall. Leave it to the _Supreme Leader_ to poison himself accidentally. Is this what his reign would culminate in? Is this what the would-be- Emperor be remembered by? His eyes flitted to Rey’s. A flicker passed them. He immediately looked down again, cutting the thought off before it could even take shape. The time for _those_ thoughts were _long_ past.

“Well it looks like things may have worked in your favor today.” Kylo leaned his head back against the column, staring into the shattered ceiling and the parts of sky he could see. Thin wisps of clouds and the edges of treetops danced on a canvas of pale blue. Mocking him. 

“You won’t have to kill me yourself. Lucky you.” he mused, still sensing her in front of him as his eyes slid closed when the light became too painful for his over-sensitive eyes.

Rey swallowed the biting remark she was about to unleash on him. His words echoed with a hint of weary acceptance, a minuscule yet lingering taste of defeat.

One she found she didn’t like at all.

Her eyes roamed over his face, taking in how his lips were parted in shallow breaths. Full, dark lashes fluttered against the tops of flushed cheeks. With his eyes closed she could see how much softer he seemed. How tired he looked with the shadows hollowed out beneath his eyes. The last time she had seen him was months ago, across a collapsing hangar with flames and an army between them. He looked tired even then when their eyes met. 

 _Something_ flickered in her chest, a feeling that she had all but smothered. That's what she told herself at least, ignoring the part of her subconscious that had been fascinated with him since Starkiller, the very place where their misbegotten bond had taken root, tethering them together. It was the fascination that cultivated on Ach-To; tempered by the events leading up to their fateful meeting on the _Supremacy_ . And then it had all gone so wrong. By the time the _Falcon’s_ ramp had closed on the tumultuous chaos of Crait, all that was left were two broken hearts that mirrored the broken saber pieces in her hands.  

That was two years ago.

It felt like a lifetime.

They had both done what they could to stifle the bond since that last painful look on Crait, tamping down the force that bound them until it was nothing more than a trickle, a hum that could be ignored in the peripheral of their minds. No more intimate visions of each other, no more wayward, forced connections. Only the occasional glancing thought that slipped by once in a while, and only a glimmer of emotions that faded as fast as they had come.

_"Like flower petals pressed flat between old parchment." Leia had whispered to her, a warm hand on her shoulder._

It was a thing they could not sever, but had learned to go on without. Regardless of what went on behind shields, it was an unspoken rule between them: Kylo stayed on his side and she on hers.

For two years they had successfully stopped the strange way it sometimes brought them together; only meeting in battle since then as the last Jedi and the Supreme Leader.

But now, seeing him again without the immediate need to clash weapons... the resolve she fought so hard to keep up faltered as his barriers deteriorated with the effects of the poison leaching through his veins.

“There’s a way to stop it.” Rey blurted before she could stop herself. What the hell was she doing, saving her enemy from a fate possibly worse than death? If Finn or Poe were here...well if they were here she probably wouldn’t be in this wretched situation in the first place. But then Rose’s face popped into her head. Rose would back her in this. She would know Rey was trying to do the right thing.

She cursed her innate goodness as well as the small, encouraging voice in her mind and went on to explain.

“It’s called the Maiden’s Blood. It’s a poison that works as an aphrodisiac of _epic_ proportions. Works your body into a frenzy, mimicking extreme sensitivity and it increases the blood flow to quicken the rate of the poison. That’s why you feel like you probably can’t breathe.”

Kylo looked up at her, eyes bright and hard.

“Are you telling me this kriffing thing is killing me by making my libido jump?” He sounded equally astonished and enraged. “Let me guess, it stops with _release_.”

Rey’s silence said enough.

“You’re half right. Maiden’s Blood is a bit more complex than that. It takes a release to shock the body to a more normal state or so that’s the idea, but it requires help.”

“What do you mean by _help_?” He was beginning to grow frustrated as the poison spiked again, this time enough to make his head whirl for a moment.

He clawed at the high collar of the thick vest he wore before ripping at the closures and threw it from his body. He was left in nothing but the thick pants he wore, his arm guards and the leather straps that held them in place. His chest was bare, a smooth expanse of skin atop tightly packed, hard muscle. Long faded scars scattered like constellations around the faded sunburst the bow-caster bolt had left.

The water on his skin was already beginning to evaporate, fueled by the fever that was beginning to heighten to a frenzy. Kylo doubled over as a sharpness clenched at his abdomen, the sensation rippling across his entire frame as he was wracked with shivers. He took slow, deep breaths through the contraction, but it took a long minute for them to subside. When they finally did he was on the floor, curled into himself and breathing hard, his vision marred by black spots winking back at him.

Rey crouched down beside him. She had decidedly made up her mind, watching him convulse on the floor. While she didn't quite want to examine her rampant feelings that were resurfacing for the man before her, it wasn't in her to simply stand back and let him die when she _knew_ she could help him.

“It won't let you reach it by yourself. You have to..to keep... going until it burns itself up.”

She reached out her hand, placing it softly but firmly on his back. She almost pulled it away again at how hot his skin was, but refrained and instead began to rub small circles on his shoulder blade. She left her voice low, as unobtrusive and soothing as she could make it, regardless of how awkward the words had felt on her tongue. Her hands remained slow and steady but widened until she was stroking his entire back. Kylo’s breathing had started to slow to a normal pace as she continued her ministrations, though she knew the calm was an illusion. She could feel the tension rippling under her finger tips. He peeked at her through a mess of dark curls, watching her with pupils that had almost eclipsed the thin sliver of brown in his eyes.

“What are you doing?” He rasped.

“Let me help you.” She repeated, steady and soft.

He didn't move but she could feel his body tense beneath her hand. With their bond beginning to open up again, she caught the sliver of thought and held it before it could flit away again.

He was thinking of the last time her voice had sounded so soft for him, whispering the same words in a quiet lift.

_I’ll help you._

It made her throat catch hard. A small, choked sound escaped.

 

***

 

Kylo was straining to control himself. The moment her skin had made contact with his own, his system had gone into a frenzy. Everything was heightened to a chaotic state and went right through him and he was made painfully aware of the erection straining against his pants. He flinched away from her then, using an uncontrolled burst of Force from his palm to send her back. He pushed himself to hands and knees, moving away from her.

“Leave me. I won't be held responsible for what I might do.” He rasped.

He was shaken from the thoughts that were beginning to surface in his mind from some unknown depraved depth. So desperate was his body becoming it had been screaming at him to reach out and _take_ and it was making Kylo sick because _he was not that kind of monster._  

His force push had been weak and Rey had been all but shoved onto her back from it. She didn’t move towards him again, just watched as he dragged himself up against one of the far pillars near the water’s edge. She had to admit, his trajectory was smart, she was a little hesitant to go close to the water and the poison floating atop it.  

 _Leave me. Go._  

It repeated through her mind over and over again, a whispered plea buzzing in the back of her head. It took a second more to realize it was his voice, projecting into her mind without meaning to.

The bond was past tumultuous and into chaos, what used to be a trickle now a full blown roar.

They came in flashes. Images projecting like old holos behind her eyes. They flickered in rapid succession, scenes of intimacy that brought a different kind of heat to her skin and her breathing inadvertently quickened as she saw his unchained thoughts.

_It was always of her, of them...in more ways than she could ever imagine. Pale skin tangled against sun-kissed limbs, long fingers trailing a softly arched spine, nails digging into muscled flesh, her own simple name, made holy by plush lips parted in gasped prayers to dying gods._

_Rey._

She saw them all and couldn't help the breathless tremor that shook her as she sat there on the cold floor. Her hands were flat in front of her, palms pressed to the old stones that hummed with whatever secrets the temple chose to keep. The cold grounded her. Allowed her thoughts some coherency.

A hard clarity rose in her as she looked at the man so far across from her.

The Supreme Leader. The would-be Emperor. A man who challenged her over and over again, who fought her, hunted her and her allies relentlessly. Kylo Ren was her enemy. Her eternal headache and walking human disaster of a mess that was tethered to her with no logical rhyme or reason.

And yet he was something _more_ than just her enemy.

She remembered the softness in his gaze, the tenor of his voice as he had whispered “please” on trembling lips. He was someone who knew her. Mind and heart, no matter how they tried to ignore and forget.

There would always be another side of the mirror.

He was someone she held a strange-but-strong affinity to. Someone she considered deep down as hers in some twisted way. Hers. And he was _dying_.

Rey took a breath, long and slow, exhaling every shred of doubt that was creeping into her before her resolve failed. She would do this. She would help him. A life for a life. He saved her from Snoke...she would save him from _this_. And then they could go their separate ways once more, go back to the endless fight between the last Jedi and the Supreme Leader.

Lying, it seemed, had also grown easier over time. Even if it was to herself. Rey pushed herself up to sit back on her calves, fingertips trailing the cool stones once more until they rested atop her knees. The slight sentience she felt from the the stones went quiet beneath her and she understood.

The temple had one more secret to keep.


	2. If Walls Could Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First let me say: THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE AMAZING REVIEWS AND KUDOS! I'm honestly a bit blown away and humbled by the response, I cherish and appreciate every last one of you! This chapter got away from me for a bit, and I didn't realize how much feeling I suddenly packed into a sex-pollen fic. But c'est la vie, that is what I wanted! I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> (Special thanks to my fandom darling/wifey: @brittlelimbs, who never fails to hold my hand and pet my head when I'm a struggling wreck of a human disaster)
> 
> Come say hello or find me on Tumbr: @reylotea

 

***

Rey unclipped his saber from her belt, setting it down beside her. The sound of metal clicking on stone was soothing, something small to focus herself. Her own hilt is placed beside his. Next, her belt, wound tightly in on itself followed by her grey vest, folded in half and laid out across the discarded weapons.

Her movements were slow. Measured. A false calm that bellied the slight tremble in her fingers and the hitch in her breath.

It was a bravado that kept her from thinking too hard about what she was about to do.

She stood, kicking off her boots before she was left in nothing but her soft, grey pants and the thin linen shirt that just served to provide an extra layer beneath her vest. The air was still a humid, smothering thing clinging to her skin but her toes curled against the cold of the temple floor. She squared her shoulders, a deep shrug and an even deeper exhale, before padding on bare feet across to where Kylo still lay curled in on himself on knees and elbows, his head pressed to the floor. His hands were curled over his head, leather-clad fingers tangled roughly into dark locks. His breathing was harsh and over-loud, echoing across the water beside him.

 Her steps were blessedly silent as she stopped before him and kneeled.

 Now or never.

“Ben?” her voice was a whisper as she reached out to untangle his fingers from the vicious grip they had on his hair.

 

***

Kylo physically flinched as he simultaneously felt her soft fingers against his own and heard her aching voice. There it was again. That softness that was even now cutting through the poison’s rage. He had dreamed about it on the hardest nights, when the pain of missing her was enough to rival the burn that had carved a scar into his side.

He knew how the plea of a dead name could sound like a prayer.

He let it fill the hollowness residing deep within his chest, the place where the temple’s poison was beginning to really dig its claws into. For a moment he almost believed he would make it through this. But the moment of clarity her touch offered was fleeting.

His body was very much aware of how she was suddenly too close to him and he could feel the fire flare to life in his veins once more. Her skin on his did nothing to subdue the white-hot currents screaming through every nerve-ending like lightning, scraping him raw. With her this close he could smell her - dusty sweat, sunlight and the faintest hint of jasmine sticking to her skin and hair.

Hidden beneath was that was the shimmering scent of warm, female desire that had started to permeate his haze like honey dripping from fingertips. He had seen it in hazel eyes that were dilated a bit too wide, feel it in the tremble of her breath. He knew she was trying to dampen it, trying to go unnoticed, but _everything_ was heightened for him. And the bond that had been slammed shut was faltering, spilling though like a flurry in a storm. The number of secrets were beginning to lessen between them with each poisoned pulse going through his veins, something neither could control.

Rey bent to press soft lips against the back of his head. Her hair, longer than he’d seen it last, fell around them like a curtain and he was smothered in her for a brief second.

She smelled so fucking _delectable_.

It was intoxicating. It was cloying. It had him weak and dizzy and leaning into her without meaning to, forehead now pressed to the tops of her thighs instead of the hard ground. His gloved fingers flexed into tight fists where they rested on either side of her bent legs. 

Kylo wanted nothing more than to grab her legs and tip her backwards, spread her thighs wide as he pressed his face against the hot center between them were her scent was strongest. He could already imagine her lips parted in a shocked little yelp, see her bright eyes widening as he moved to tug her pants down…

The whine that left his lips was something he knew was absolutely _pathetic_ but couldn't bring himself to care.

***

She must've taken that as a sign to go on because then she was carding fingers through his hair, trying to soothe him with sweet, hushed words pressed into unruly hair and the back of his over-sensitive neck.

“It’s okay Ben, I'm here. We’ll get through this.”  she whispers. 

Every breathless syllable was a rush of blood to his throbbing cock.

Her hands were trailing across his shoulder blades, tracing the thick straps holding his arm guards in place as they strain across his back and chest. She followed it to where they meet the clasps at his shoulders and undoes them with deft fingers. Then Rey's hands pressed up against his chest, forcing him to raise to a kneel, mirroring her so she could properly remove what was left of his armor. With the slightest tug she's dragging them down, first the left one, over the curve of his shoulder, down the thick bump of his bicep her fingers went, sliding the tight sleeve off. The tips of her fingers scald him, leaving a trail of unseen scorch marks in his flesh that tingled and burned. Then came the same treatment with his right arm. He was positive he was about to burst into flames any second.

Her eyes are following her own hands, but his eyes are on her. Now that his head is level with hers it's easier to see the catch in her throat, the slight hitch in her breath through parted lips as she slowly traces featherlight touches across twitching muscle. The flare of her desire is quick and piercing, making his eyes widen before she catches herself and tucks it away again.

Kylo silently revels in the heated flush that rises to her cheeks, down her throat and trails down to the soft v of her shirt. He wants to follow it down, with lips and tongue and grazing fingertips to see how far it goes.

Rey shivers as if she hears him. 

Finally, he was free of his heavy guards. How he managed the ordeal he didn't know. She tossed them away, flinging them behind her. All that was left on his upper body were the leather gloves wrapped around his hands and she quickly bent over them, shimmying them off finger by finger.

Something in his chest tightened, watching her. He was flooded with images of the last time he removed a glove for her...and the last time he reached his hand towards her.

_Please._

He shoved the thoughts down violently, before either could choke on them. He already knew she had seen them too.

“I'm not leaving you.” she whispered. It was a pained, quiet thing, each syllable ending on a hard little note that made her voice shake. His hands were bare now and she was holding them in her own, her thumbs brushing maddening strokes on the inside of his over-sensitive wrists. He was gasping, lips parted as she worked, little whimpers sneaking out between breaths.

He tried to tug them away, escape her tender touches, but Rey held fast, like always, eternally stronger than him in every way that mattered.

“ _Now_ you want to stay?” he gritted out.

He knew it was cruel. The words faded on a shattered laugh. He had calculated it in the dying embers of his sanity. It was what he thought would rile her enough to leave him.

It seems he also forgot how nothing would deter her when her mind was set.

Rey was silent, gripping his wrists a little harder until that weak noise escaped him again. She was raised up on her knees, crowding too far into his personal space, just like she always did when they were in proximity. His skin tightened. He hadn't let anyone close enough to touch him let alone breath his air as she was doing now. Not since the last time they had parted in that broken throne room. Her gold-green eyes were blazing, brighter than a kyber crystal. He had riled her efficiently. The energy crackled around them.

“Why is it so hard for you to let me in when I'm just trying to help you?!” she spat, her own temper rising. Her hands were no longer gentle and lingering. They were hard, the strength of her pulsing with all of her pent-up anger, nails digging painfully into forearms and wrists. Her teeth were bared again. There was that look, the one he remembered so well, the one he favored.

_You have that look in your eyes. The one from the forest. You called me a monster._

He was never a match for her softness, her light.

But her darkness was always more his than hers. Her rage was something he could handle. Something he could take and use. He felt it building, felt the darkness like a wave through the bond. Two years of pain and fear and words left unspoken, smothered before they could even take shape. She was livid. So was he.

The poison fed.

“Do you really want to die, Ben?” she snarled. Her eyes flashed, and he saw her, his avenging angel. This is the woman who had put her faith in a vision, not realizing that Kylo Ren had lived for far longer than Ben Solo.

He did what darksiders did best. He took her rage and made it his own. Entwined it around the poison now staining his blood. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to bring her righteousness crumbling down.

“ _Yes_.”  

The syllable rang on his tongue like the tolling of a bell.

It echoed around them in the ancient, empty air. A stale, foul sound that dug into her chest with bloody talons and squeezed. She couldn't breathe through the force of it. As quickly as it had come, her anger fled in the face of his declaration. The fight left her as she was left floundering in his self-derision.

“Ben, I -" she tried again, not knowing what else she could say. Any further words she thought died on her tongue, ashy and hollow.

She didn't get her chance to respond. She instead watched with wide eyes as his breath seemed to stutter. A sudden shudder rolled through him, shaking his entire body. His eyes widened in startled pain. A shock like a lightning bolt shot through him, a hard punch to the gut. He doubled over, gasping.

The pollen was hitting him in full. It was the only way to explain the glaze the world took on - glassy and shifting, the overwrought pounding in his ears, how the poison’s low burn had turned sinister...something thick and acidic seeping through him. Volatile.

Whatever mercy it had granted him up to this point was long over.

“You need to _go.”_ His voice was unrecognizable, thin and reedy, dripping with a desire that didn't belong to him. He tugged himself roughly away from her, trying to escape her warmth. He wasn’t able to get far before the pollen dug into him, teeth first, lighting his blood on fire.

They were out of time.

*** 

“I'm not going anywhere.” she whispered. Her hands remained wrapped around his wrists, even as he tried to evade her, she held strong. Her voice was back to that blessed calm thing, a melodic croon meant to sing his demons to sleep. If this were any other moment, that voice would be his salvation. But he was a man condemned to hell and instead of soothing it was a grating agony against every damned nerve. 

Kylo - no... _the poison_ , he told himself - wanted her undone.

He didn’t want her voice as some soft, trembling thing. He wanted her hoarse and breathless and _screaming_ for him. He wanted her to _beg_ for his lips and hands and cock. He wanted her on her back beneath him, thighs spread wide, her perfect cunt split open for him as he watched himself slide in and out of her dripping heat. He wanted her kyber bright eyes on his, wanted her clenching around him, begging him to come inside her as she fell apart. He wanted to fill her up with himself until there was nothing of them left.

More than anything, Kylo wanted to leave his mark on her.

He wanted to paint bruises and bites across her skin like a map of stars only he could read. With lips and teeth and fingertips pressing too hard, he needed people to know where she'd been, who she'd been with, what she'd _done_ with the man who would soon be king. He needed people to know she _belonged_ to him.

He wanted to ruin her.  _Devour her whole_.

 An aching shudder ripped through him, rising high with that final depraved thought. He moaned, low and hot, head falling heavily against her shoulder. Another ripple of agony spread through him, his eyes snapping shut as he fought another sharp twinge in his abdomen, teeth clenched as the muscles there contract and release sporadically. It's enough pain for him to cry out, even as her cool hands come up, pressing into his hair and cupping his face as he tries to press it into the side of her neck, breathing hot, wet breaths against her collarbone.

Rey kisses his forehead then his temple.  

His arousal soars yet another impossible notch higher and he can't stop himself from darting his tongue against that softness between neck and shoulder, relishing in the startled squeak she makes. He wrapped an arm around her, snaking it up her spine until his fingers are tangled in her loose hair. He tugged her head to the side a bit too roughly and smirked at the pained moan she makes as he finally latched generous lips into the hollow of her throat. Kylo gives an experimental little suck, and neither are prepared for her soft keen.

With his control falling to pieces, he needed something, _anything_ to relieve some of the pressure, too far gone to the poison’s wrath.

Without stopping his assault on Rey’s neck, he fumbled clumsily with the button on his pants for a long minute before sliding a hand inside his briefs and curling it around his cock. He's harder than he's ever been in his life, already dripping precome. He gave a few hard strokes, groaning against her skin, not quite caring anymore how humiliating it was. He knew she could feel what he was doing, even with his hand still fisted in her hair as he devoured her throat. Her lovely, flushed face tipped back to the rafters of the broken ceiling where a blue sky and pale clouds mocked the darkness rampaging within the temple.

He knew she could feel his movements. Her hands had moved from his face to grip tightly at his shoulders, nails biting into his skin. It was a delicious sharpness keeping him grounded to this moment. He stroked harder, wrist pumping faster in the familiar rhythm he had perfected in his lifetime of celibacy. His cock was thick and red, throbbing in his fist, head swollen and leaking. The obscene sound of flesh sliding against flesh was far too loud.

 

He needed more.

 

Kylo dug his fingers into her hair a little harder, releasing his mouth from her tender neck with a sordid ‘pop'. Rey moaned, high and breathy. Her small hands were grazing anywhere they could reach. Across his packed chest, over broad shoulders, down the ladder of his ribs they went, tracing every scar, finding every imperfection.The uncanny sensation of heat and shivers against his skin was maddening. She dipped lower, grasping at lean hips before skimming her fingers below the loosened waistline of his pants. He groaned as fingertips brushed the top of his ass, digging in for a scant second before sliding back around to his muscled thighs. She pushed his pants lower down his hips, giving him more room to maneuver.

Whatever heavy, unspoken thing had held them before was locked away. They could decide to examine those demons when Kylo was not on the verge of a messy death. Now they were unmade again, back to the base of human touch. There didn't have to be any twisted up emotions here, only a very desperate desire.

Her clever hands finally reached for his cock.

He grabbed her in one smooth motion before she could reach her destination. His free hand held both of her smaller ones with ease, long fingers wrapped tightly around around slim wrists. He brought her hands back to his chest, pressing her palms flat against the muscle in a warning she understood.

“Look. At. Me.” he bit out, tugging her head level with his. He held her there, needing her lust-bright eyes on his own. Her glassy gaze settled on his lips for an agonizingly slow moment. He thought she would kiss him. His hand tensed in her hair.

The movement jarred her, and instead of leaning in for a kiss, her eyes slid further down to where he was roughly fisting aching flesh. Her eyes widened, a sweet little gasp escaping her parted lips. He moaned, feeling himself twitch against his palm as she stared wide-eyed.

He let her watch, straining even harder as unguarded thoughts washed over him. Fierce need and curiosity mingled with the slightest undercurrent of daunting trepidation at his size. He couldn't stop the smirk from forming if he tried.

The dark thing inside him preened.

“Eyes on me, stardust.” He purred softly, again forcing her gaze back to his. The high riding his blood made him bolder, more demanding. _Brave_. He could take this much from her.

Rey whimpered at both the fist in her hair and the soft endearment he hadn't even realized he had spoken aloud. She leaned forward, set on his lips, but he turned at the last second, just a fraction and her mouth smashed against his chin. She growled in frustration, the sound buzzing against his skin. He smiled but made no effort to move for her so she reached what she could, trailing feather soft kisses against his jawline and neck. He could feel her tongue, quick and hot, dart against his skin as she gently sucked and nibbled. He groaned, his hand massaging her scalp as he pressed her closer to him.

The poison dug its claws deeper, pulling apart weathered bones and threadbare edges to where he kept every little thing of her tucked away. He knew what she wanted. He wanted the same. Wanted to feel her lips pressed against his more than anything, with the passion of twisting tongues and biting teeth or the gentleness of soft licks and feathery pecks. It was also the one thing he would not allow himself.

 _Not like this._  

He pumped his hand faster. The edge of pleasure coiled hot and low in his belly as he chased an end that was just out of reach.

Kylo _needed_ release. That was the only way he would survive. And though for all his self-loathing, he knew in his heart she would not leave him. Not this time when his life was in her hands alone. He wanted to be wrong.He was hoping beyond reason that touching her like this while he touched himself would be enough. That he could be done, alive and send her on her way before this escalated. The part still clawing at any shred of control _prayed._ He needed this to work, needed this to be the furthest step of depravity.

“ _Ben_.” It was a soft, pleading whine between plump red lips she had been biting too hard, sucked into the very corner of his wide mouth. An almost kiss. It was all he needed.

His entire body went rigid as his orgasm hit like a freighter. A hoarse yell ripped from his lips, the sound reverberating back against water and stone as he gives his erection a last few hard tugs. His eyes were fixed on her as he finally spills, hot and messy, over long fingers still gripped tightly around hard flesh. Thick ropes of it shoot onto her clothed abdomen and drip down to the stone floor.

They're both heaving, he notices first, chests rising and falling too fast to catch their breath. His forehead was pressed to hers and she was trailing soothing hands across his chest and abdomen. “Better?” She whispers voice low and rough.

“Mmm.” it's graceless, more of a grunt. But it's all he can muster. He can't bring himself to care about the mess he's made of them. He should be mortified. Humiliated. He should be trying to gather himself and run. Stay far away from the beautiful sun-kissed girl who held and touched him through this entire treacherous ordeal.

Instead he lowers himself to lay flat on his back against the cool stone floor as the endorphins begin to melt away. He's tired, body worn from the pollen, but as he closed his eyes his mind was finally calm. His clarity returned to the forefront of his mind and he gave a great big sigh of relief. Never mind that he was still half-hard, exposed to the cooling air, and that come still stained his fingers. Or that he could already feel the poison simmering at a low boil somewhere deep in his blood waiting to resurface. Soft rustling came from beside him, but he didn't have the energy to open his eyes to see what she was doing.

All he wanted was to sleep for a day. Maybe longer. 

For now, he would take the quiet. He could breathe again.  
  
  
  
  



End file.
